summer times

August...has been FLYING by. Last week Mom and Dad were gone for the whole week, and I did a lot of yard work which I loved. I was outside for a couple of hours each morning which was great for the kids - they played hard and it made for easy nap times. Justin was gone this week for work in St. Louis so it was nice having lots to do while he was away.

I've also been reading TONS. Missoula, Into the Wild, and Under the Banner of Heaven were three books I devoured this week, all written by Jon Krakauer. I really like his books. I'm currently reading The Out-of-Sync Child and Three Cups of Tea - I look forward to getting through those so I can start Three Cups of Deceit (by Jon Krakauer) and A Long Walk to Water.

The kids have been loving their kitty Ginger. Every morning they look forward to feeding her and she seems to like the kids as well.

Logan loves going for rides on the four-wheeler

I took the kids to Ross Park withs some friends a few weeks ago. They had the TIME of their LIVES. They had an awesome kid pool with a big toy in the middle and a lazy river. We went back and forth between those two all afternoon.

Early in August the raspberries were ON. The kids and I would pick them every day and get TONS. They're pretty much done now, but that was the best. I even made some jam with one of the batches.

We sold our car! I was amazed...we posted it on a Friday and had it sold by Sunday afternoon. With Justin's work-from-home job and with me not going to MK appointments, we decided it didn't make sense to have a car payment on a car that sits in the driveway 90% of the time. Yes it was nice for Justin to take to the airport when he's traveling (which he seems to do every-other week these days). But I only have to drive him for a few more months and we'll be living in Idaho Falls (that is... IF Mom can stand to give up her dream apartment).

I got my hair cut by the gal that does my Mom's hair. Wow! Donna did an amazing job. My hair has never looked better!

One night while Justin was gone Logan was having a hard time falling asleep so I got him up and he and I watched TV for a bit.

yummy lunch time!

The hay is ready to get baled! The boys enjoy all the tractors around here.

Granny decided to share her grapes - lucky boys! They have no idea what a treasure fruit is to their Granny.

Throwing rocks in the river

We made raspberry shakes a few weeks ago. Check out that pink mustache!

The other day we had our windshield fixed so we had to walk from the park to the shop to pick it up... Emmett was done walking and had ALL his dead weight on my shoulders. Good thing Mama lifts every day!

"working from home"...

baking cookies

the boys love mowing the lawn

eating brownies on the porch

We had so much fun at Ross Park the first time I decided to take the kids back on Saturday with Justin. The forecast said sunny and 80's...we got there and it was overcast and windy AND the lazy river was broken. We only lasted for just over an hour ... but the kids had a good time. Hey, we got to have Cafe Rio and their nachos are life! And we got ice cream on the way home...not all bad.

My mom offered to take my kids to the zoo so Justin and I could go to the temple. The Idaho Falls temple was a stark contrast to the Seattle temple - for one, the session was completely FULL unlike having 3-4 ladies and gents like in Seattle. They also had a creation room, garden room, telestial room, terrestrial room, and celestial room! Talk about busy! In Seattle there's just one room that encompasses all the rooms until the Celestial room, so all the moving to different rooms with different murals was cool - it was fun to look all around at the paintings.

Unfortunately, Granny and Gramps forgot to take pictures of the zoo - that would have been FUN to see!